The background description provided herein is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure. Work of the presently named inventors, to the extent it is described in this background section, as well as aspects of the description that may not otherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neither expressly nor impliedly admitted as prior art against the present disclosure.
Software applications that provide interactive digital maps, driving directions, and various geographic functions (“geographic applications”) can operate on computing devices that generally have a permanent network connection as well as on portable devices such as smartphones, tablet computers, car navigation systems, etc., which typically rely on a network connection. In addition to providing interactive digital maps, some geographic applications provide other types of geospatial data, such as information about businesses at various geographic locations, descriptions of points of interest, navigation directions, etc. For example, a geographic application operating on a portable device can receive a geographic query such as “gas stations nearby,” transmit the search query to a network server, and display the search results via the user interface of the portable device.